With two of the preseason favorites making it to the World Series, the Phillies and Yankees don’t represent the same dilemma that the Las Vegas sportsbooks found themselves in last year, when the Tampa Bay Rays took the American League by storm and surprised everyone with their first trip to the Fall Classic.

But there always is a team that would do better for the sportsbooks if they won, and in this year’s World Series that team is the Phillies.

“We’re in pretty good shape with either team, but we do better if the Phillies win than if the Yankees win,” said Jay Kornegay, executive director of the Las Vegas Hilton’s sports book. “So, right now, we’re rooting for the Phillies.”

Because of that, Yankees-Phillies is about as good a matchup as the sportsbooks could have hoped for, outside of a certain manager getting a chance to come back to The Bronx.

“Yeah, any time the Yankees are involved, it will draw a little more attention than if they weren’t,” Kornegay said. “I think the marquee matchup would have been the Dodgers and Yankees, because of [Joe] Torre, but you still still have an intriguing matchup between the defending-champion Phillies and the Yankees.”

The Yankees have been installed as 2-1 favorites to win their 27th World Series, and their first since claiming the Subway Series in 2000. While some people may have been surprised at the perceived lack of respect Philadelphia may have been shown, Kornegay said past performance has little to do with the prices he puts up.

“The fact that the Phillies are the defending champions is pretty much irrelevant,” he said. “The Phillies aren’t as tough as they were last year. Their pitching isn’t as strong as it was last year heading into the Series.”

The World Series won’t be the dominant force in sports betting this week. Even with no competition on the sports calendar against Game 4 Sunday night in Philadelphia, Kornegay still felt the Giants-Eagles game there Sunday afternoon would easily outpace it.

“The baseball game will get a lot more action on Sunday night because there isn’t a lot going on,” he said. “But you’re still probably going to see three times as much action [on Giants-Eagles].”

tbontemps@nypost.com

Deciphering baseball’s lines

A variety of unique baseball betting lines are offered, including:

Money line: The simplest way to bet on games. You just choose who is going to win each game. If they win, you win. The line is read right to left with a 5 in the middle. For example, in a 7-8 line, you would bet 80 to win 50 on the favorite, or 50 to win 70 on the underdog. The difference is how the bookies make their money.

Runs spread: This is baseball’s version of the point spread. Instead of simply betting on a team to win a game, you decide if they will win or lose by enough runs to cover the spread. For example, say the Yankees are -1.5 runs against the Phillies. If you bet on the Yankees, they will have to win by at least two runs for you to win your bet.

Over/under: Instead of betting on the teams, you can decide whether or not the two teams will combine to score a certain amount of runs. If the over/under in a game is set at eight runs, you can either bet the total runs will be more or less than eight.

Series line: Rather than picking each game individually, you can also bet on which team will win the series.

Pennant/World Series odds: Before or during the season, if you feel confident you know who is going to win the American League, National League or the World Series, you also can bet that way.